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CBC News has a profile which focuses on Convention Alley, the for adults only Harry Potter symposium which took place over the weekend in Ontario, Canada.Overall, the conference’s wide range of paper, panel and discussion topics – from “Severus Snape: Romantic Byronic Hero or Unredeemable ‘Greasy Git’?” to “Harry’s International Readers: Global Understanding or Culture Shock?” – reflects the broad background of the participants, who are primarily drawn from the internet chat group.

The article includes interviews with academics on the popularity of children’s shows or books with adults, as well as an interview with Sheryll Townsend, one of Convention Alley’s organizers.

When you read the first couple [Harry Potter books], you can understand why publishers classified them as children’s literature,” Townsend said. She adds, however, that since the 1997 debut of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the characters have matured with each new edition to the series, which has also become much darker, as Rowling promised from the beginning. “Order of the Phoenix – c’mon, that’s not a book for kids.”